The walls of Jericho

Archaeology confirms: they really DID come a-tumblin’ down

Fascinating recent discoveries reveal something unusual happened to the ancient
city of Jericho. Heavily fortified, with a virtually impregnable double wall, what
caused her sudden destruction? And find out why it is significant that even her
inhabitants’ foodstores could still be seen in our time, where they were left
…

The name ‘Jericho’ brings to mind Israelites marching, trumpets sounding
and walls falling down. It is a wonderful story of faith and victory, but did it
really happen? The skeptic would say no, it is merely a folk tale to explain the
ruins at Jericho. The main reason for this negative outlook is the excavations at
the site carried out in the 1950s under the direction of British archaeologist Kathleen
Kenyon. She concluded,

‘It is a sad fact that of the town walls of the Late Bronze Age, within which
period the attack by the Israelites must fall by any dating, not a trace remains
…. The excavation of Jericho, therefore, has thrown no light on the walls
of Jericho of which the destruction is so vividly described in the Book of Joshua.’1

Thomas A. Holland, who was editor and co-author of Kenyon’s excavation reports,
summarized the apparent results as follows:

‘Kenyon concluded, with reference to the military conquest theory and the
LB [Late Bronze Age] walls, that there was no archaeological data to support the
thesis that the town had been surrounded by a wall at the end of LB I [ca. 1400
B.C.].’2

However, a careful examination of the archaeological evidence collected throughout
this century leads to quite another conclusion.

Fortifications of Jericho

Before the Israelites entered the promised land, Moses told them that they were
now about to cross the Jordan river, to dispossess nations which were greater and
stronger than themselves, with large cities having walls that reached, as it were,
to the sky (Deuteronomy
9:1). The meticulous work of Kenyon showed that Jericho was indeed heavily
fortified and that it had been burned by fire. Unfortunately, she misdated her finds,
resulting in what seemed to be a discrepancy between the discoveries of archaeology
and the Bible. She concluded that the Bronze Age city of Jericho was destroyed about
1550 B.C. by the Egyptians. An in-depth analysis of the evidence, however, reveals
that the destruction took place around 1400 B.C. (end of the Late Bronze I period),
exactly when the Bible says the conquest occurred.3

Schematic cross-section diagram of the fortification system at Jericho based on
Kenyon's west trench.

The mound, or ‘tell’ of Jericho was surrounded by a great earthen rampart,
or embankment, with a stone retaining wall at its base. The retaining wall was some
four to five meters (12–15 feet) high. On top of that was a mudbrick wall
two meters (six feet) thick and about six to eight meters (20–26 feet) high.4 At the crest of the embankment
was a similar mudbrick wall whose base was roughly 14 meters (46 feet) above the
ground level outside the retaining wall (see diagram). This is what loomed high
above the Israelites as they marched around the city each day for seven days. Humanly
speaking, it was impossible for the Israelites to penetrate the impregnable bastion
of Jericho.

Within the upper wall was an area of approximately six acres, while the total area
of the upper city and fortification system was 50% larger, or about nine acres.
Based on the archaeologist’s rule of thumb of 200 persons per acre, the population
of the upper city would have been about 1,200. However, from excavations carried
out by a German team in the first decade of this century, we know that people were
also living on the embankment between the upper and lower city walls. In addition,
those Canaanites living in surrounding villages would have fled to Jericho for safety.
Thus, we can assume that there were several thousand people inside the walls when
the Israelites came against the city.

The fallen walls

The citizens of Jericho were well prepared for a siege. A copious spring which provided
water for ancient, as well as modern, Jericho lay inside the city walls. At the
time of the attack, the harvest had just been taken in (Joshua
3:15), so the citizens had an abundant supply of food. This has been borne
out by many large jars full of grain found in the Canaanite homes by John Garstang
in his excavation in the 1930s and also by Kenyon. With a plentiful food supply
and ample water, the inhabitants of Jericho could have held out for perhaps several
years.

After the seventh trip around the city on the seventh day, Scripture tells us that
the wall ‘fell down flat’ (Joshua
6:20). The Hebrew here carries the suggestion that it ‘fell beneath
itself.’5 Is there evidence
for such an event at Jericho? It turns out that there is ample evidence that the
mudbrick city wall collapsed and was deposited at the base of the stone retaining
wall at the time the city met its end.

Kenyon’s work was the most detailed. On the west side of the tell, at the
base of the retaining, or revetment, wall, she found,

‘fallen red bricks piling nearly to the top of the revetment. These probably
came from the wall on the summit of the bank [and/or] … the brickwork
above the revetment.’6

In other words, she found a heap of bricks from the fallen city walls!
An Italian team excavating at the southern end of the mound in 1997 found exactly
the same thing.

Artist’s reconstruction of the north side of ancient Jericho, based on the
German excavations of 1907–1909. Note the houses built against the mud brick
city wall, which rests on top of the stone retaining wall. The Bible says that Rahab's
house was built against the city wall (Joshua
2:15).

According to the Bible, Rahab’s house was incorporated into the fortification
system (Joshua
2:15). If the walls fell, how was her house spared? As you recall, the spies
had instructed Rahab to bring her family into her house and they would be rescued.
When the Israelites stormed the city, Rahab and her family were saved as promised
(Joshua
2:12–21;
6:17, 22–23). At the north end of the tell of Jericho, archaeologists
made some astounding discoveries that seem to relate to Rahab.

The German excavation of 1907–1909 found that on the north a short stretch
of the lower city wall did not fall as everywhere else. A portion of that mudbrick
wall was still standing to a height of over two meters (eight feet).4
What is more, there were houses built against the wall! It is quite possible that
this is where Rahab’s house was.7
Since the city wall formed the back wall of the houses, the spies could have readily
escaped. From this location on the north side of the city it was only a short distance
to the hills of the Judean wilderness where the spies hid for three days (Joshua
2:16, 22). Real estate values must have been low here, since the houses
were positioned on the embankment between the upper and lower city walls. Not the
best place to live in time of war! This area was no doubt the overflow from the
upper city and the poor part of town, perhaps even a slum district.

After the city walls fell, how did the Israelites surmount the four to five meter
(12–15 foot) high retaining wall at the base of the tell? Excavations have
shown that the bricks from the collapsed walls formed a ramp against the retaining
wall so that the Israelites could merely climb up over the top. The Bible is very
precise in its description of how the Israelites entered the city: ‘the people
went up into the city, every man straight before him [i.e., straight up and over],’
(Joshua
6:20). The Israelites had to go up, and that is what archaeology
has revealed. They had to go from ground level at the base of the tell to the top
of the rampart in order to enter the city.

Destruction by fire

The Israelites burned the city and everything in it (Joshua
6:24). Once again, the discoveries of archaeology have verified the truth
of this record. A portion of the city destroyed by the Israelites was excavated
on the east side of the tell. Wherever the archaeologists reached this level they
found a layer of burned ash and debris about one meter (three feet) thick. Kenyon
described the massive devastation as follows.

‘The destruction was complete. Walls and floors were blackened or reddened
by fire, and every room was filled with fallen bricks, timbers, and household utensils;
in most rooms the fallen debris was heavily burnt, but the collapse of the walls
of the eastern rooms seems to have taken place before they were affected by the
fire.’8

Both Garstang and Kenyon found many storage jars full of grain that had been caught
in the fiery destruction. This is a unique find in the annals of archaeology. Grain
was valuable, not only as a source of food, but also as a commodity which could
be bartered. Under normal circumstances, valuables such as grain would have been
plundered by the conquerors. Why was the grain left at Jericho? The Bible provides
the answer. Joshua commanded the Israelites that the city and all that is in it
were to be dedicated to the Lord (Joshua
6:17, lit. Heb.).

Photo by Bryant Wood

Dr Wood stands at the base of the stone retaining wall uncovered by Italian archaeologists
at the southern end of Jericho in 1997. The Israelites marched around this wall
when they attacked the city as described in
Joshua 6.

The grain left at Jericho and found by archaeologists in modern times gives graphic
testimony to the obedience of the Israelites nearly three-and-a-half millennia ago.
Only Achan disobeyed, leading to the debacle at Ai described in
Joshua 7.

Such a large quantity of grain left untouched gives silent testimony to the truth
of yet another aspect of the biblical account. A heavily fortified city with an
abundant supply of food and water would normally take many months, even years, to
subdue. The Bible says that Jericho fell after only seven days. The jars found in
the ruins of Jericho were full, showing that the siege was short since the people
inside the walls consumed very little of the grain.

Lessons of Jericho

Jericho was once thought to be a ‘Bible problem’ because of the seeming
disagreement between archaeology and the Bible. When the archaeology is correctly
interpreted, however, just the opposite is the case. The archaeological evidence
supports the historical accuracy of the biblical account in every detail. Every
aspect of the story that could possibly be verified by the findings of archaeology
is, in fact, verified.

There are many ideas as to how the walls of Jericho came down. Both Garstang and
Kenyon found evidence of earthquake activity at the time the city met its end. If
God did use an earthquake to accomplish His purposes that day, it was still a miracle
since it happened at precisely the right moment, and was manifested in such a way
as to protect Rahab’s house. No matter what agency God used, it was ultimately
He who, through the faith of the Israelites, brought the walls down. After the people
had marched around them for seven days, it was ‘by faith the walls of Jericho
fell down’ (Hebrews
11:30).

As well as showing us how vital it is not to discount the Bible because of some
apparent conflict with secular scholarship, Jericho is a wonderful spiritual lesson
for God’s people yet today. There are times when we find ourselves facing
enormous ‘walls’ that are impossible to break down by human strength.
If we put our faith in God and follow His commandments, He will perform ‘great
and mighty things’ (Jeremiah
33:3) and give us the victory.

The root of the word tahteyha in
Joshua 6:5, 20 is tahath, meaning ‘underneath,’ ‘below’
with a reflexive 3rd feminine singular pronominal suffix ha referring back
to hômah, ‘wall.’ Return to text.

Kathleen M. Kenyon, Excavations at Jericho,
3:110, London, British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem, 1981.
Return to text.

The Hebrew phrase in
Joshua 2:15 is beqîr hahômah. Usually qîr
means a small wall, but can also indicate the vertical surface of a wall. Brown,
Driver and Briggs’ lexicon suggests this for Joshua 2:15 (p. 885), and in
this case the preposition be would mean ‘against’(p. 89). Thus,
literally, ‘her house [was built] against [the] vertical surface of the [city]
wall.’ Return to text.

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